Tag Archives: Rajasthan

To fulfil its poll promise of continuous electricity supply to the domestic consumers and over six hours supply to agricultural sector across the state, the Vasundhara Raje government has decided to purchase electricity from private companies for the first three months to provide uninterrupted power supply to people.

Sources inform that the ruling party doesn’t want to take chances in the upcoming general elections and hence, has decided to ensure proper supply of electricity to farmers during the Rabi season. It has therefore ordered all three discoms – Ajmer, Jaipur and Jodhpur to purchase electricity from private companies. A total of 1,050 MW of power will be purchased in total in first three months.

The purchase is only for a short term, as another unit of Chhabbra Power Plant is expected to start generating power by April. Also, the government is expecting power supply from Kawai Power Station in the coming months.

On various occasions, energy minister of Rajasthan, Gajendra Singh Khinwsar has stressed on continuous electricity supply in rural areas and ordered officials to ensure the same.

However, as ironic as this may sound, but the ‘necessary’ supply will affect the cash-strained discoms.

Investments worth Rs 14,000 crore made by wind power companies in Rajasthan is threatened by a serious law and order problem as locals are stealing expensive parts of the wind power mills.

Top officials of Suzlon – the main supplier of wind power equipment – say almost all power mills in just one district — Jaisalmer have stopped functioning as locals have looted equipment worth Rs 150 crore in the last few months.

The total installed capacity in the Jaisalmer region is 2,359 MW, which translates into an investment of more than Rs 14,000 crore.

Wind mill operators say the loss is twofold in nature. One, a considerable amount of financial resources has to be spent on the replacement of valuable spare parts and at the same time there is a substantial amount of income lost through generation; not to mention the inadequate power supply and the additional finances the state has to mobilize for purchasing it from other states.

Due to its unique geographical location, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu have received maximum investment by the wind power industry.

Even as the government battles to secure fuel for thermal power plants in the country, as many as six states including Gujarat, Haryana and Tamil Nadu have asked state-run Coal India to restrain supplies. “Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have asked Coal India not to supply coal more than the registered quantity or more than the trigger level as there are no takers for the coal produced,” a source told PTI. Coal India is incentivised if it supplies fuel more than the trigger level, in this case 90 per cent, as the Fuel Supply Agreements were signed before March 2010. The lack of demand for coal can also be linked to lesser demand for electricity during monsoon in general and power from thermal in particular, as rains have improved hydro power production, the source said.
As per official estimates, the coal requirement during the current fiscal for the power sector is estimated at 548 million tonnes (MT).Of the domestic availability during the current fiscal, 377 MT is likely to come from Coal India, 36 MT from SCCL ( Singareni Collieries Company) and 28 MT from captive coal blocks.

National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco), a Navratna PSU, has set up its 2nd wind power plant at Ludarva in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan with a capacity of 47.6 MW. The move is part of Nalco’s plan to diversify into other metals and the energy sector. One part of the project has been commissioned successfully and power production has commenced from 18 wind energy generators.

The Rs 283-crore wind power project is being executed through Gamesa Wind Turbines Private Ltd.,which involves erection of 56 Wind Turbines, each of 850 KW rating. This is Nalco’s second green initiative towards promoting sustainable development by harnessing the unconventional and renewable energy sources, which would credit the company with incentives from the government. The project is scheduled to be completed by August 2013.

The State can join the league of pioneers of solar energy in the country if its efforts to install 1,000 MW solar energy plants are fruitful within a year.

Solar energy is likely to be available at a price of Rs.8 to Rs.8.50 per unit. The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC), Solar Energy Society of India and NREDCAP jointly organised a seminar on ‘Developing Vijayawada as a solar city’ here on Wednesday.

On the sidelines of the seminar, former advisor to Government of India (MNRE) E.V.R. Sastry said: “My estimate is that the State has a potential to install 10,000 MW solar power plants in the next 15 years.” Gujarat is marching ahead of others in the country.

Even before the Central government announced the National Solar Mission, solar energy was being generated in Gujarat. Gujarat has solar power units generating 824 MW, and Rajasthan stands in second place with 440 MW. Andhra Pradesh has a 22.4 MW solar energy plant while Maharashtra has 24.2 MW, he explained.

Of course, the climatic conditions matter. Gujarat and Rajasthan have dry weather conditions and solar radiation is high compared to Andhra Pradesh.

In our State, Rayalaseema region has good potential to tap solar energy. Ranga Reddy, Medak, Nalgonda are some of the districts suitable for solar power plants while Krishna district is not that suitable, he opined.

The State government has received bids close to 200 for the installation of solar energy plants across the State. The bidders have quoted prices ranging between Rs.6.50 per unit to Rs.12 per unit.
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PR Fonroche, an equal joint venture of PR Clean Energy (India) and the French company Fonroche, is working towards putting up 200 MW of solar photo-voltaic plants in India, the joint venture’s Joint Managing Director Pratap Raju told Business Line.

PR Fonroche today formally inaugurated its 5 MW solar plant at Gajner near Bikaner (Rajasthan), which is a part of a 20 MW project that the company won through a competitive bidding process of the National Solar Mission, Phase I Batch II. This is the first (of the 340 MW) of the projects that are being put up under the Mission’s Phase I Batch II. The other 15 MW plant has also started producing electricity but will be formally commissioned on the 15th of this month, Raju said.

The solar power plant, which uses thin film modules of the US company First Solar, expects to produce 38 million units of electricity a year, or 1.9 million units per MW of capacity. PR Fonroche won the project bidding a tariff of Rs 9.1 per kWhr.

Mahindra EPC Services Pvt Ltd, part of the Mahindra & Mahindra group, was the ‘engineering, procurement, construction’ contractor for the project.
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India’s Rajasthan state called for bids to set up 200 megawatts of solar-power projects after delaying the process for almost a year.

The state is auctioning contracts for 100 megawatts of photovoltaic plants and 100 megawatts of solar-thermal plants, according to bidding documents posted on the website of the state-run Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corp.

While the northwestern state, which has some of India’s most promising terrain for sun power, called for bids last December, it never carried out the auction. Bids this time are due by Jan. 11 and will be opened the same day, according to the documents.

Rajasthan receives on average the most solar irradiation in India after the neighboring state of Gujarat, according to a joint study by the India Meteorological Department and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
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Ratnottama Sengupta covers policies as a consultant in the Market Intelligence team at BRIDGE TO INDIA.

The Indian solar market again has immediate opportunities to set up projects under a feed-in-tariff based state policy. The Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation Limited (RRECL) has reopened its request for selection (RfS) for a 100MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects and 100MW of concentrated solar power (CSP) projects under the Rajasthan Solar Policy. These projects will be allotted through a process of competitive bidding. The winning bidder will be one who offers the highest discount upon the RRECL’s benchmark solar tariff of INR 8.42 (EUR 0.13)/KWh. A feed-in-tariff will be paid to the winning bidder for 25 years.

The PPA under the Rajasthan Solar Policy will be signed between the Project developer and the State nodal agency, RRECL
200MW of PV and CSP projects
First FiT based projects since February 2012

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